When the 53rd Grammy Awards crashed to a conclusion at 10:30 Sunday night, more south Louisianans had turned up as remembrances than winners.
Alex Chilton, songwriter Bobby Charles and jazz photographer Herman Leonard, a Lakeview resident prior to Hurricane Katrina, were all memorialized. Meanwhile, Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews, Dr. John, Wynton Marsalis and the “Treme” soundtrack all went home empty-handed.
Still, there was much to savor in the telecast, which wasted little time on actual award distribution.
My first thought? Aretha Franklin has died. The opening Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Hudson, Martina McBride, Yolanda Adams, Florence Welch tribute felt like a eulogy. But a slimmed-down Queen of Soul appeared via video to reaffirm her continued existence.
Best ad-lib: Train singer Pat Monahan thanked Justin Bieber "for not being a duo or group," thus paving the way for Train’s win.
The new Sonny and Cher: Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez. He is the short, odd-looking goofball with the awkward sense of humor. She is the statuesque, all-business beauty who tolerates him. Together, they made for an entertaining presenter pair.
Performances were solid all around. The Bruno Mars/B.o.B./Janelle Monae black-and-white montage smoked. The Aretha tribute was tastefully executed. Mumford & Sons and the Avett Brothers, devoid of pretense and artifice, kicked out the jams behind an even craggier than usual Bob Dylan. Seriously, he makes Tom Waits sound like Bieber.
After Dylan, cameras cut to fellow ‘60s survivors Neil Young and Jeff Beck in the audience. Coincidence?
Judging by online chatter, I’m not the only one who believes Lady Gaga’s new “Born This Way” is more than slightly reminiscent of Madonna’s “Express Yourself.”
For a moment after the first “protestor” crashed the stage during Muse, I thought this might be a repeat of Rage Against the Machine bassist Tim Commerford crashing the MTV Video Music Awards during Limp Bizkit’s acceptance speech in 2000.
How to make Cee Lo Green’s irresistible yet profane hit pass muster on network TV? Refer to it as the “song otherwise known as ‘Forget You.’” And let a feathered Green perform it with a band of puppets – and Gwyneth Paltrow, reprising her spunky version from “Glee.”
Rihanna’s fire-and-smoke gown during the opening of “Love the Way You Lie” matched the flames on the video screens and the fire in her (and Eminem’s) eyes.
Katy Perry screened footage of her wedding to Russell Brand during “Not Like the Movies.” Too sweet, or too much?
Weakest performances: Usher/Bieber and Barbra Streisand. Hers was the only moment that seemed beamed in from a decade or three ago. And her vocals were way too low in the mix.
Eminem – dude, you won rap album of the year. Dial down the intensity for a few seconds and lighten up, will ya?
What was wrong with Diddy? He seemed incoherent, and sported what looked like either braces or a horrible grill on his lower teeth.
Worst-dressed: Lenny Kravitz, in what appeared to be a vinyl jacket tailored with a weed whacker, and Green Bay Packers linebacker Clay Matthews, in what he’d wear to the grocery.
Three years ago, Amy Winehouse won five of six awards for which she was nominated, including record and song of the year. But in a surprise ending, she lost to Herbie Hancock for album of the year.
On Sunday, contemporary country trio Lady Antebellum won five of six awards for which it was nominated, including record and song of the year. But in a surprise ending, the group lost to Canadian indie rock ensemble Arcade Fire for album of the year.
Arcade Fire’s strobe-lit performance of the un-melodic “Month of May” likely gave some voters second thoughts. In a disjointed scramble back to their instruments after their big win, they closed the show in an appropriately unvarnished manner with the far more palatable “Ready to Start,” their newly acquired gold Gramophone stashed atop an amplifier.

When the 53rd Grammy Awards crashed to a conclusion at 10:30 Sunday night, more south Louisianans had turned up as remembrances than winners.
Alex Chilton, songwriter Bobby Charles and jazz photographer Herman Leonard, a Lakeview resident prior to Hurricane Katrina, were all memorialized. Meanwhile, Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews, Dr. John, Wynton Marsalis and the “Treme” soundtrack all went home empty-handed.
Still, there was much to savor in the telecast, which wasted little time on actual award distribution.
My first thought? Aretha Franklin has died. The opening Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Hudson, Martina McBride, Yolanda Adams, Florence Welch tribute felt like a eulogy. But a slimmed-down Queen of Soul appeared via video to reaffirm her continued existence.
Best ad-lib: Train singer Pat Monahan thanked Justin Bieber "for not being a duo or group," thus paving the way for Train’s win.
The new Sonny and Cher: Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez. He is the short, odd-looking goofball with the awkward sense of humor. She is the statuesque, all-business beauty who tolerates him. Together, they made for an entertaining presenter pair.
Performances were solid all around. The Bruno Mars/B.o.B./Janelle Monae black-and-white montage smoked. The Aretha tribute was tastefully executed. Mumford & Sons and the Avett Brothers, devoid of pretense and artifice, kicked out the jams behind an even craggier than usual Bob Dylan. Seriously, he makes Tom Waits sound like Bieber.
After Dylan, cameras cut to fellow ‘60s survivors Neil Young and Jeff Beck in the audience. Coincidence?
Judging by online chatter, I’m not the only one who believes Lady Gaga’s new “Born This Way” is more than slightly reminiscent of Madonna’s “Express Yourself.”
For a moment after the first “protestor” crashed the stage during Muse, I thought this might be a repeat of Rage Against the Machine bassist Tim Commerford crashing the MTV Video Music Awards during Limp Bizkit’s acceptance speech in 2000.
How to make Cee Lo Green’s irresistible yet profane hit pass muster on network TV? Refer to it as the “song otherwise known as ‘Forget You.’” And let a feathered Green perform it with a band of puppets – and Gwyneth Paltrow, reprising her spunky version from “Glee.”
Rihanna’s fire-and-smoke gown during the opening of “Love the Way You Lie” matched the flames on the video screens and the fire in her (and Eminem’s) eyes.
Katy Perry screened footage of her wedding to Russell Brand during “Not Like the Movies.” Too sweet, or too much?
Weakest performances: Usher/Bieber and Barbra Streisand. Hers was the only moment that seemed beamed in from a decade or three ago. And her vocals were way too low in the mix.
Eminem – dude, you won rap album of the year. Dial down the intensity for a few seconds and lighten up, will ya?
What was wrong with Diddy? He seemed incoherent, and sported what looked like either braces or a horrible grill on his lower teeth.
Worst-dressed: Lenny Kravitz, in what appeared to be a vinyl jacket tailored with a weed whacker, and Green Bay Packers linebacker Clay Matthews, in what he’d wear to the grocery.
Three years ago, Amy Winehouse won five of six awards for which she was nominated, including record and song of the year. But in a surprise ending, she lost to Herbie Hancock for album of the year.
On Sunday, contemporary country trio Lady Antebellum won five of six awards for which it was nominated, including record and song of the year. But in a surprise ending, the group lost to Canadian indie rock ensemble Arcade Fire for album of the year.
Arcade Fire’s strobe-lit performance of the un-melodic “Month of May” likely gave some voters second thoughts. In a disjointed scramble back to their instruments after their big win, they closed the show in an appropriately unvarnished manner with the far more palatable “Ready to Start,” their newly acquired gold Gramophone stashed atop an amplifier.

As the Cowboys prepare to move on as if Marc Colombo will not play against Washington on Sunday, Alex Barron said he's ready to fill in at right tackle.

Not that you'd expect any different, but this is the scenario in which the Cowboys pictured having to use Barron when they traded Bobby Carpenter to St. Louis for him.

Barron has experience at both tackle spots. He played right tackle in 2005-06 and '08 for the Rams. And he spent this summer practicing against the Cowboys' 3-4, which he said should help preparing for Washington's 3-4.

"My confidence is high," said Barron, who has started 74 games in his career. "This is not my first rodeo. It's the first game of the season and that's about it."

Barron and right guard Leonard Davis worked together in just one preseason game (at Houston), so the communication might not be at its best.

"It's just something we've been building on since I had to step in," Barron said. "It's nothing that happens overnight. We've been working on it since I stepped in over there. It's getting better. Every day, we watch film and talk about some things. We just expect to be OK on Sunday."

As the Cowboys prepare to move on as if Marc Colombo will not play against Washington on Sunday, Alex Barron said he's ready to fill in at right tackle.

Not that you'd expect any different, but this is the scenario in which the Cowboys pictured having to use Barron when they traded Bobby Carpenter to St. Louis for him.

Barron has experience at both tackle spots. He played right tackle in 2005-06 and '08 for the Rams. And he spent this summer practicing against the Cowboys' 3-4, which he said should help preparing for Washington's 3-4.

"My confidence is high," said Barron, who has started 74 games in his career. "This is not my first rodeo. It's the first game of the season and that's about it."

Barron and right guard Leonard Davis worked together in just one preseason game (at Houston), so the communication might not be at its best.

"It's just something we've been building on since I had to step in," Barron said. "It's nothing that happens overnight. We've been working on it since I stepped in over there. It's getting better. Every day, we watch film and talk about some things. We just expect to be OK on Sunday."

On July 21, 2010, Alex King airs on CNN’s “Larry King Live” to discuss about his life after being freed from prison and said that he wants to help young people to stop violence.

Alex king and his brother Derek King were sentenced on Nov. 26, 2001 for slaying of their father Terry King. That time Derek was only 13 years old and Alex was 12. Alex brother confessed to using a baseball bat to crush his father’s skull and Alex helped him to make murder plan.

As per some news site Derek King said after killing his father “Alex suggested that I kill dad. I murdered my dad with an aluminum baseball bat. I set the house on fire from my dad’s bedroom.” And Alex King said “I felt a little sad about it, a little bit sad, a little bit, um. . . a little relieved that we don’t have to go through it, what he put us through again. . . the abuse.” The boys sentences were short because of their ages at the time of the murder.

After seven years, in 2008 Alex released after serving in prison and Derek released from prison in 2009.

On July 21, 2010, Alex King airs on CNN’s “Larry King Live” to discuss about his life after being freed from prison and said that he wants to help young people to stop violence.

Alex king and his brother Derek King were sentenced on Nov. 26, 2001 for slaying of their father Terry King. That time Derek was only 13 years old and Alex was 12. Alex brother confessed to using a baseball bat to crush his father’s skull and Alex helped him to make murder plan.

As per some news site Derek King said after killing his father “Alex suggested that I kill dad. I murdered my dad with an aluminum baseball bat. I set the house on fire from my dad’s bedroom.” And Alex King said “I felt a little sad about it, a little bit sad, a little bit, um. . . a little relieved that we don’t have to go through it, what he put us through again. . . the abuse.” The boys sentences were short because of their ages at the time of the murder.

After seven years, in 2008 Alex released after serving in prison and Derek released from prison in 2009.

NEW ORLEANS — Singer and guitarist Alex Chilton, known for his influential work with bands the Box Tops and Big Star, has died. He was 59.
Chilton's longtime friend John Fry says that Chilton died Wednesday at a hospital in New Orleans after experiencing what appeared to be heart problems.
Fry, the owner of Memphis-based Ardent Studios, says he has spoken to Chilton's wife and that she's very distressed. Fry said: "It was just a sudden and unexpected event."
Chilton had been scheduled to perform with Big Star on Saturday at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas.
The festival's creative director, Brent Grulke, says Chilton's gift for melody was second to none.
Gulke says: "Alex Chilton always messed with your head, charming and amazing you while doing so."

NEW ORLEANS — Singer and guitarist Alex Chilton, known for his influential work with bands the Box Tops and Big Star, has died. He was 59.
Chilton's longtime friend John Fry says that Chilton died Wednesday at a hospital in New Orleans after experiencing what appeared to be heart problems.
Fry, the owner of Memphis-based Ardent Studios, says he has spoken to Chilton's wife and that she's very distressed. Fry said: "It was just a sudden and unexpected event."
Chilton had been scheduled to perform with Big Star on Saturday at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas.
The festival's creative director, Brent Grulke, says Chilton's gift for melody was second to none.
Gulke says: "Alex Chilton always messed with your head, charming and amazing you while doing so."

Bravo's original "Housewives" begin their fifth season with some heady drama and a nod to tough economic times.
This season of "The Real Housewives of Orange County," which kicks off with an opener entitled, "When Times Get Tough, The Tough Go Shopping," features one housewife who could lose her home, one who could send her son to jail and is contemplating divorce and one who will find new love with a man who can't seem to commit. And one housewife will leave the show because of her financial instability.
Arguably one of the most popular characters, former Playboy Playmate Jeana Keough, 54, will only appear for three episodes this season. She is going through a divorce from former major league pitcher Matt Keough and is seen in the premiere episode struggling as a real estate agent to make ends meet.
In the show, Keough's 16-year-old son, Colton, has to give his mom a lecture on financial responsibility. She tells him, "It's weird to be in a place where you have to think before making a purchase." Keough then admits she could downsize her residence by roughly half, to a meager 5,000 square feet.
Facing these new economic realities and balancing a television show became too much for Keough during filming, and after the episode airing November 19 she leaves to try to pursue success without the cameras following her every move.
Fellow Housewife Tamra Barney admitted she wasn't sad to see Keough go. "She was always stirring the pot. She was the first one to go behind someone's back and cause trouble," Barney said. "I love her but she created drama."
Barney, 42, who joined the Housewives in the third season through a Bravo casting call, will try to hold her family together this season as her son Ryan, 23, faces jail time for unpaid traffic tickets. In the middle of all the drama with Ryan, she and her husband, Simon, will try to keep their marriage from collapsing under the pressures of the show.
"We were going through a hard time with the economy, and he is kind of a private person, so it was a big decision for him to keep doing the show," Tamra Barney said. "He held out for quite a while. You will see us trying to work things out."
The woman who holds everyone together is Lynne Curtin, but she and her family have their own problems as they face possible eviction from the Laguna Beach home the ladies gather in during the first episode.
In addition to losing their home, Curtin has other weighty topics to consider this season. The 53-year-old mother of two teenage daughters finally gets the face-lift she's been wanting for years.
"I went under the knife and I did it. It wasn't anything like I anticipated. I am thrilled I can put my eye makeup on and I don't have to hold my eyelids up," Curtin said.
Outspoken veteran Housewife Vicki Gunvalson will continue to build her growing insurance business and try her best to improve her relationship with her second husband, Donn, about whom she has pledged to no longer be so negative.
Gretchen Rossi, 32, finds a new love this season. After mourning the loss of her much older and much-divorced fiance, Jeff Beitzel, who died of leukemia in 2008, Rossi is finally ready to get back in the saddle and it is with someone who is very familiar to "Housewives" fans -- Slade Smiley. Slade is the ex-fiance of former Housewife Jo De La Rosa and also dated former cast member Lauri Waring Peterson.
"We're calling him the 'Housewife Hunter,' " Curtin said about Smiley. "We're going to get him a shirt made up that says 'The Hunter.'"
The wild card this season will be the newest cast member, Alex Bellino, a 32-year-old stay-at-home mom with three young children and a body, as Bravo describes it, that "defies all logic."
"I like her," Barney said. "She is just a really sweet woman, a mother and very opinionated, which is going to make her a very important player on the show this season ... especially with Vicki."

Bravo's original "Housewives" begin their fifth season with some heady drama and a nod to tough economic times.
This season of "The Real Housewives of Orange County," which kicks off with an opener entitled, "When Times Get Tough, The Tough Go Shopping," features one housewife who could lose her home, one who could send her son to jail and is contemplating divorce and one who will find new love with a man who can't seem to commit. And one housewife will leave the show because of her financial instability.
Arguably one of the most popular characters, former Playboy Playmate Jeana Keough, 54, will only appear for three episodes this season. She is going through a divorce from former major league pitcher Matt Keough and is seen in the premiere episode struggling as a real estate agent to make ends meet.
In the show, Keough's 16-year-old son, Colton, has to give his mom a lecture on financial responsibility. She tells him, "It's weird to be in a place where you have to think before making a purchase." Keough then admits she could downsize her residence by roughly half, to a meager 5,000 square feet.
Facing these new economic realities and balancing a television show became too much for Keough during filming, and after the episode airing November 19 she leaves to try to pursue success without the cameras following her every move.
Fellow Housewife Tamra Barney admitted she wasn't sad to see Keough go. "She was always stirring the pot. She was the first one to go behind someone's back and cause trouble," Barney said. "I love her but she created drama."
Barney, 42, who joined the Housewives in the third season through a Bravo casting call, will try to hold her family together this season as her son Ryan, 23, faces jail time for unpaid traffic tickets. In the middle of all the drama with Ryan, she and her husband, Simon, will try to keep their marriage from collapsing under the pressures of the show.
"We were going through a hard time with the economy, and he is kind of a private person, so it was a big decision for him to keep doing the show," Tamra Barney said. "He held out for quite a while. You will see us trying to work things out."
The woman who holds everyone together is Lynne Curtin, but she and her family have their own problems as they face possible eviction from the Laguna Beach home the ladies gather in during the first episode.
In addition to losing their home, Curtin has other weighty topics to consider this season. The 53-year-old mother of two teenage daughters finally gets the face-lift she's been wanting for years.
"I went under the knife and I did it. It wasn't anything like I anticipated. I am thrilled I can put my eye makeup on and I don't have to hold my eyelids up," Curtin said.
Outspoken veteran Housewife Vicki Gunvalson will continue to build her growing insurance business and try her best to improve her relationship with her second husband, Donn, about whom she has pledged to no longer be so negative.
Gretchen Rossi, 32, finds a new love this season. After mourning the loss of her much older and much-divorced fiance, Jeff Beitzel, who died of leukemia in 2008, Rossi is finally ready to get back in the saddle and it is with someone who is very familiar to "Housewives" fans -- Slade Smiley. Slade is the ex-fiance of former Housewife Jo De La Rosa and also dated former cast member Lauri Waring Peterson.
"We're calling him the 'Housewife Hunter,' " Curtin said about Smiley. "We're going to get him a shirt made up that says 'The Hunter.'"
The wild card this season will be the newest cast member, Alex Bellino, a 32-year-old stay-at-home mom with three young children and a body, as Bravo describes it, that "defies all logic."
"I like her," Barney said. "She is just a really sweet woman, a mother and very opinionated, which is going to make her a very important player on the show this season ... especially with Vicki."